During this past week we have been studying the situation in reference to the unemployed Mali population in Mallorca with the help of Mady (secretary of the Mali association of Mallorca and social worker).
We decided to give priority to the people most in need and that has given us a list of approximately 34 people.
This morning, Sunday, we had a meeting with Mady and with Mousa Keite (vice-president) to decide on the next steps which we agreed would be the following:
Rather than take cooked food to the targeted population, and as nearly all have access to the use of a kitchen, we would provide them with the supplies they need to make the food they are used to and like. The majority of the population live in an block in Palma and the number that lives in a given apartment varies. The person that rents the apartment can not afford to pay for the rent and to feed the 5 to 7 people that live there. These people are unemployed and survive in precarious conditions.
The fact that most of these people live in a block makes our logistics easier.
We agreed that once a week we would deliver food packages to the Asociacion de Vecinos centre in Son Dameto and there we would be met by the person designated per apartment to collect and sign a receipt for the goods. We also agreed to visit the apartments and get to know the population we are dealing with so as to understand their problems and situation so as to see if we can help them in other ways.
We will be providing them with:
Rice (they tend to eat it every day with a sauce)
Macaroni
Spaguetti
All meat as long as it is not pork
Potatoes
Onions
Pepper
Tomato,fresh and canned
Garlic
Fish
Eggs
Milk
Bread
Oil
These things will enable them to cook and will mean that we will not have to rely on people cooking for us and delivering the hot food in time before it gets cold.
There are ALSO 3 women in the group with children and unemployed husbands. We will be looking more in to their situation as their vital needs are different to the main group.
So if all goes well we will be able to start this program very soon.
We are impressed by the support these Mali people give each other even in their time of great need.
We are looking in to other risk groups on the island. More on this later this week.
